Pop Report: Franco, Soto Rise in Latest PSA Grading Returns

PSA graded 202,336 cards last week for a 4% decrease compared to the prior week. In baseball, the latest returns showed Wander Franco and Juan Soto climbing as the season kicks off.

Read this week’s Pop Report from GemRate for the latest news on PSA’s grading trends.

From a category perspective:

• Basketball, baseball, and football all increased this week; hockey swapped spots with soccer for the first time in many months.

The mix of the top 50 players (and characters) graded during the period were as follows

31 – Basketball

16 – Baseball

8 – Football

4 – TCG

1 – Golf

Below you’ll find a list of the top players graded for each category. 

An important consideration is what to make of this list. In the current situation where fears of junk slabs dominate the hobby, ranking high on this list likely is negatively correlated with price as that signals a meaningful number of slabs could move into the market in the near future. However, under normal circumstances, it could potentially be a leading indicator of positive price correlation as the list more accurately represents forward looking activity (i.e. bets being placed on players) and price potential.

BASKETBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Ja Morant, Zion Williamson 
• DOWN: Shaquille O’Neal

BASEBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Luis Robert, Mike Trout, Bo Bichette, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr., Wander Franco, Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Lewis
• DOWN: Fernando Tatis Jr, Ken Griffey Jr
• OUT: Derek Jeter, Randy Arozarena

FOOTBALL

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Tom Brady, Justin Jefferson, Josh Allen, Mac Jones
• DOWN: Joe Burrow 
• OUT: Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers 

SOCCER

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham, Neymar Jr.
• DOWN: Giovanni Reyna, Youssoufa Moukoko, Christian Pulisic
• OUT: Ansu Fati, Florian Wirtz

Note: Hockey and soccer lists are more volatile because grading activity is lower. Much smaller moves in grading activity can have a big impact on these lists.

HOCKEY

Top 10 Most Graded Players & Top Graded Card (during the 1-week period)

Noteworthy moves:

• UP: Martin Brodeur, Connor McDavid, Alexis Lafreniere, Cale Makar, Dominik Hasek
• DOWN: Kirill Kaprizov, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros
• OUT: Alexander Ovechkin, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov

Note: Hockey and soccer lists are more volatile because grading activity is lower. Much smaller moves in grading activity can have a big impact on these lists.

Data in the Sports Card Investor Pop Report series is provided by GemRate. Follow GemRate on Instagram and Twitter for more on the latest cards graded by PSA.

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